December 15, 2006

Staged Qana Event Among Reuters Photo of the Year

A photo staged by Hezbollah has made it to the Reuters pictures of the year. While the incident at Qana was real, the picture taken was part of a staged photo op by Hezbollah operatives. Because of this, it's not clear what the actual death toll was at Qana. The photos and news from the staged event led to mass rioting in Beirut.

A higher quality version of the photo, along with the Reuters caption, can be seen at Snapped Shot, along with commentary. And thanks to Brian for digging this pic up and letting me know about it. I had seen the Reuters top photo story over at Michelle Malkin's yesterday, but I didn't know one of the photos was from Qana.

Reuters has promised to warn the public in the future when a photo was taken at a staged Hezbollah event, they would make that clear in their caption. As LGF reprints:

If for example a photo is taken while on a tour organized by Hezbollah we will now make this 100% clear in the caption. We want to let our users know the full context and make up their own minds.

The Qana photo which made it to Reuters top list, has not been redacted to make clear that the event was staged by Hezbollah.

Oddly enough, the Reuters promise comes in a lengthy piece by Reuters CEO Tom Clocer which credits Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs for brining doctored photos to their attention. We at The Jawa Report are still waiting for our thanks from Tom. But, in all honesty, it was one of the Lizaroids who just happened to make it over to The Jawa on that day who first suspected the photo, and left a comment about it. I did the more thorough examination of the photo, but I didn't see it first. And, there's no way Reuters would have ever paid attention to that second photo had it not been for Charles and Michelle for picking up my post. Thanks.